KOTB

Back to reality ...

Of all the welcomes Cadie had imagined,
being swept up into an all-encompassing senatorial bearhug was the most
unexpected. She felt herself lifted off her feet as Naomi squeezed her.

"Welcome back, darling," effused
the senator, putting Cadie down and planting a resounding kiss on her shorter
partner's lips. "It's good to have you back. I missed you."

Cadie cringed, painfully aware
of Jo turning away from the scene and making a show of greeting Jenny and
Paul.

"Hello, Naomi," Cadie replied,
fighting the urge to struggle out of the senator's grip. What is with
this? she wondered. Yesterday she was screaming at me down the telephone
and today she's all over me. What gives?

"I was worried about you,"
Naomi continued, guiding Cadie to a seat in the cockpit. "When Paul told
us how Jo had disturbed a burglar at her house, I was concerned. Are you
all right?" She looked the blonde up and down, her expression all concern
and care as she sat down next to Cadie.

"Yes, Naomi, I'm fine," the
blonde replied. "And it wasn't Jo who disturbed the burglar, it was Josh,
the young man who was looking after Jo's house for her." She decided to
stick with the same story they'd come up with for Josh's parents. "We got
there at the same time as the police and they handled it."

"Well, that's grand," said
Naomi, patting Cadie's thigh and casually leaving her hand there. "Look,
I'm very sorry about my attitude on the phone last night. But, as you can
understand, I was scared out of my wits for you." She smiled winningly
and looked Cadie in the eye. The blonde felt herself squirming inside.

"It's okay," she mumbled. "Forget
about it."

"In fact," continued the senator,
"while I'm in the mood to apologize, I'm going to go and tell Jo the same
thing, while you settle back in." Before Cadie could object, Naomi bustled
off in search of the skipper.

"Look out, Jo," Cadie muttered
to herself. "Here comes Hurricane Silverberg." She watched anxiously as
Naomi accosted the tall skipper. She could see Jo's face over the senator's
shoulder and at one point caught her eye, trying to smile in reassurance.
Jo's expression clouded over as the senator shook her hand.

Jo watched the senator hurrying
towards her with a large degree of trepidation. Like Cadie, she had been
surprised by the friendliness of Naomi's welcome, and had stuffed the unexpected
pang of jealousy deep down. But now there was no avoiding the senator's
approach.

Welcome back to real life,
Jo-Jo, she thought to herself as Naomi closed in.

"Skipper, I want to thank you
personally for looking after my partner so well," gushed the senator, placing
one hand on Jo's shoulder and pulling her away from Paul and Jenny. "I
know you were in a difficult situation but she tells me you did everything
possible to keep her safe and happy."

"It was no trouble, honestly,"
she said aloud. "I'm the one who should be thanking her for tagging along
when my personal life was intruding on her vacation."

"Not at all, not at all," said
Naomi, grinning from ear to ear. "It was good of you to keep doing your
job in the face of such problems. And just to show my gratitude ... " She
reached forward and shook Jo's hand, pressing a $100 bill into the taller
woman's palm.

Jo caught Cadie's eye over
the senator's shoulder and tried to keep her expression light. But then
Naomi leaned forward.

"You really went above and
beyond the call of duty, Miss Madison," she said quietly, and this time
Jo saw the glint of something entirely different in the senator's brown
eyes.

And if I do it again I'll
be at the bottom of the ocean wearing cement boots, is what she's really
telling me, thought Jo, keeping a tight rein on her temper.

"Really," she said, trying
to keep her voice calm. "There's no need. And we don't accept cash gratuities."
She tried to hand the money back.

Again the senator leaned in,
this time her manner infinitely more menacing.

"Consider it payment for services
rendered," she almost growled, her fingers now biting into Jo's shoulder
painfully. Suddenly she released her grip and smiled broadly again, before
turning on her heel and heading back towards Cadie.

Jo grimly fought down the urge
to throw something large and solid at the back of the senator's retreating
head. Instead she looked down at the bill in her hand.

Well, that's put me firmly
back in my place, hasn't it, she thought. Angrily she stuffed the money
into her shorts pocket and turned back to Paul and Jenny who had watched
the conversation.

"What the hell was that all
about skipper?" the tall man asked bemusedly. "She's been as mad as a cut
snake from the minute she found out Cadie was with you. Now suddenly everything's
sunshine and happiness."

Jo tried to brush it off.

"Beats the hell out of me Paulie,"
she replied with a wan smile.

"She hung on to my cell phone
after she had a go at you last night," Paul admitted. "Said it was some
kind of personal emergency. I didn't see it again for an hour." He saw
the grim look on Jo's face and hastily apologised. "Sorry, skip, but I
figured the customer is always right, y'know?"

Jo patted the tall man's shoulder.

"Forget it. You didn't have
any choice." A slimy thought snaked its way around Jo's brain. "You got
it with you now?"

He reached around and pulled
the phone off his hip, handing it to her.

"Thanks." Jo flipped through
the phone's menu items, searching for the option that stored the calls
made. "Goddamn it," she muttered. "Whatever calls she was making, she's
wiped the memory." She handed the phone back to Paul, who had a puzzled
look on his face.

Jo smiled at him, shaking her
head.

"Nothing, Paulie. I'm just
getting paranoid in my old age." She looked around the deck and tried to
clear her head of any negative thoughts. "Let's get her ready, eh? I want
to motor back around to the beach."

"Okay Jo-Jo."

Jo looked around, spotting
Cadie still sitting in the cockpit, the senator sticking to her like glue.
The skipper caught herself grinding her teeth.

So, the good senator is
going to play the saint, Jo mused. No doubt she'll use that winning
smile any way she can. The beginnings of a vicious headache thumped
at her temples. Fuck this, she thought. Just gotta get on with
it and take it all as it comes.

With a sigh she walked back
to the cockpit, where most of the passengers were gathering for lunch.

"Okay people, let's make a
move," Jo said as she jumped into the pit and reached for the engine cover.
"I'm suggesting we motor back around to the beach. That should take about
half an hour and then we can set up lunch on the sand. What do you think?"

She glanced around at the nodding
heads, trying not to notice the senator's hand gripping Cadie's knee possessively.

"Sounds like a wonderful idea,
Jo," said the senator with a wide smile.

"Right then," Jo said. "Let's
go."

The cabin door clicked behind
her and Cadie had the bad feeling she was trapped like a fly in a spider's
web. She turned around to face her partner, who was looking decidedly green
around the gills.

"Are you okay?" Cadie asked
quietly, sitting down in the corner chair.

"No," grumbled Naomi, staggering
a little against the rolling of the boat as she made her way to the bed.
"This goddamn boat is a freaking bucket." She sat quickly and held her
head in her hands.

"It's just because we're wallowing
while we find an anchorage, Nay," Cadie muttered. "It'll be steady soon."

"It had better," the senator
growled. "This vacation has been a goddamn torture test so far. Never again,
I swear."

Cadie said nothing, preferring
to see where this conversation was going. Naomi could have come below decks
alone when she started feeling ill, but instead had insisted on Cadie's
company. That meant only one thing.

"So," Naomi said, sitting up
as the boat finally ceased its rolling. The rattling of the anchor chain
sliding overboard could be heard forward. "Did you enjoy your little adventure?"
All semblance of good humor had deserted the senator's face. What was left
was not pleasant.

"Nay, why don't you just say whatever
is on your mind," Cadie said wearily. "Because I'm not really in the mood
for playing these games."

The senator moved faster than
Cadie could have believed possible. Within a blink of an eye, Naomi was
almost on top of her, grabbing the blonde's chin with a cruel grip. Cadie
gasped and pressed back in the chair, trying to get away from her partner's
intense stare.

"Games, Cadie?" spat the senator,
almost nose to nose with the smaller woman. Suddenly her gaze softened,
as did her hand, the vice-like grip on Cadie's chin turning into a slow
caress. She leaned closer, her lips just brushing the blonde's cheek. "I
don't think I'm the one playing games, my love," Naomi whispered.

Cadie stayed silent, the hairs
on the back of her neck rising as Naomi's fingers stroked along her jaw
and into her hair.

"Did she get this close, Arcadia?"
The senator's hot breath brushed Cadie's earlobe. She swallowed hard and
tried not to let her panic show. "Your silence is telling me a lot, darling,"
Naomi continued as she dropped light kisses down the blonde's neck. "My
guess is you've had yourself quite a night."

Cadie stiffened as she felt
Naomi's hands roaming over her body, the stocky senator's leg forcing itself
between her thighs.

"Don't, Naomi," Cadie muttered.

"Oh come on now," the senator
purred. "I know how much you love to be touched here." She kissed Cadie's
neck again. "Nobody knows you like me, sweetheart." This time a hand slid
up the inside of Cadie's thigh and the smaller woman tried to pull away
from the contact.

"Ah ah ah, Arcadia," Naomi
growled, slipping her hand higher and wrapping fingers around the top of
Cadie's leg. "Don't fight me darling. All I want to do is make sure you
know the kind of person you spent the night with."

"You know nothing about her
Naomi," Cadie said through gritted teeth, turning her head away from the
senator's baleful, close scrutiny.

"Oh but you see, I do," Naomi
replied.

Cadie steeled herself and turned
back to stare Naomi in the eye.

"What happened to you?" she
whispered, tears stinging her eyes. "I don't know who you are anymore.
What happened to the woman I fell in love with?" She felt the tear slide
down her cheek, and for a moment she thought she saw something lost and
fearful flicker across Naomi's face as her eyes tracked the salty trail.

But then it was gone and the
hard, cold stranger was back. A mean little smile touched Naomi's thin
lips and she leaned even closer, catching Cadie's tear with the tip of
her tongue, licking upwards until the blonde could stand it no longer and
jerked her face away.

"I grew up, Arcadia," the senator
murmured. "I learned that to get what you want you have to bite and scratch
and claw. Good guys really do come last. And life is too short not to have
some fun along the way."

"That is the saddest thing
I've ever heard," Cadie said tearfully. "You used to care so much about
people, Nay. Where did that go? Or have the drugs got that big a hold on
you?"

She winced as Naomi's grip
on her leg tightened sharply and Cadie bit down on her bottom lip to stop
herself crying out.

"If you have any sense at all,"
the senator growled. "You will never mention that word in connection
with my name again." Cadie blinked wordlessly at her. Naomi chuckled
low in her throat and suddenly backed away, wandering back to the bed where
she sat leaning against the cabin wall.

"You have no idea what you're
flirting with Arcadia. You weren't the only one who was busy last night.
I was making phone calls and pulling the strings of the people who run
this backward little country." The sneer on the senator's face sent a cold
dagger of fear through the blonde.

"I know all I need to know
about Jo," Cadie said, grateful to be out of reach once again.

Again Naomi laughed.

"You always did have a very
naive view of the world, my love," she said. "Did you know, for example,
that the good skipper has the blood of 15 people on her hands?"

Cadie felt the color drain
from her face. She really does know … this isn't one of her usual bluffs,
she thought.

"What's wrong darling?" asked
Naomi sarcastically. "Don't tell me that in the course of her seduction
she failed to mention that she was a professional assassin? Or did she
only tell you about the drug dealer she worked for?" The senator raised
her knee and rested her chin on her hand, watching Cadie, a tiny smile
on her face.

"And how did you find out all
this?" Cadie whispered, wondering just what was coming next.

"Like I said, darling. A US
senator can talk to whomever she feels like when she has the right telephone
numbers at hand. And I have the right numbers. The Australian attorney-general
knows all about Miss Jossandra Madison."

"Then he should have also told
you that she turned state's evidence in return for having her record expunged,"
Cadie said quickly.

"That means nothing if she
reoffends," the senator smiled.

Alarm bells began ringing in
Cadie's mind.

"You wouldn't ..." she began.

"Yes, Arcadia, I would. But
only if you don't do as I ask from now on." Again Naomi bared her teeth
in the kind of smile most often seen on circling sharks. Cadie felt a rising
tide of nausea bubbling in the pit of her stomach.

I don't believe this,
she thought. No matter what I do here, I'm screwed. Or Jo is. She
looked across at Naomi, who sat patiently, knowing she had the upper hand.
This
is so unfair on Jo. She didn't ask for me to waltz in here and turn her
world upside down. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

"What do you want from me?"
she whispered.

"Stay away from Madison for
a start," the senator growled. "And then I want you to do what you agreed
to do a long time ago. Be my wife. In every sense of the word. Obey me,
support me ..." She paused, raking Cadie with a long, lingering look. "Make
love to me. Oh, and one more thing ... work for me."

"Give up my business?" Cadie
gasped.

"Oh yes," replied Naomi. "Don't
you see that everything started going wrong for us as soon as you went
off on your own? You need to be with me all the time, Cadie. We
need you to be with me all the time."

Cadie felt a pounding beginning
at her temples which, combined with the nausea, made her feel like she'd
been dragged backwards through a bush.

"And if I don't agree to do
what you ask?"

The senator stood and walked
back over to Cadie, leant down and rested her hands on the arms of the
chair, her face close to her shorter partner's.

"Then I make a few phone calls,
the authorities search this boat and they'll find the drugs I'm sure your
tall friend has onboard," Naomi replied.

Cadie looked up into hard,
cold eyes.

"I'll warn her," she whispered.

The senator snorted with laughter.

"No Cadie, you won't," she
said. "When I say stay away from her, I mean it. Besides no matter what
you tell her, I can move faster. After all ... " She leaned closer and
whispered in Cadie's ear. "... I know exactly where the drugs are." She
drew up to her full height and looked back down at the blonde. "You don't
look well, Cadie. Perhaps you need to take a few minutes to recover." She
paused, waiting for the blonde to meet her eyes and nod. "I, on the other
hand, feel just grand. See you up on deck, when you're better."

And with that the senator turned
on her heel and left the cabin, closing the door behind her.

Cadie slumped forward, head
in hands. Shock and fear did their work on her emotions and the tears flowed
freely. For several minutes she let them, preferring not to think. Eventually
the tears dried up but her body wasn't done reacting. A wave of nausea
tugged at her throat and she dove for the head, just lifting the lid in
time as her stomach rebelled.

What a waste of a great
breakfast, she thought incongruously as she leaned against the wall
as the spasms eased. She let her legs give way and slowly slid down the
wall till she was wedged in the corner of the tiny bathroom, resting her
forehead on the arm draped across her knees.

For now I've got no choice
but to do as she says, she pondered grimly. At least until we get
back to the States and Naomi begins to forget about Jo and moves on to
other things. Then I'll think of something. Absentmindedly she chewed
on a fingernail. Until then I've got to stay away from Jo. That
thought provoked a deep pang of grief and the tears stung her eyes anew.
Damn
it. I can't just let Naomi win this way. It's so ... sleazy. She squeezed
her eyes shut, fighting a wave of panic.

You're well and truly trapped
Cadie Jones. She banged the back of her head against the wall in frustration.
And I can't warn Jo. She'll go in with all guns blazing and that's just
what Naomi is waiting for. She shook her head to clear it some. I'll
have to keep thinking about that one.

Jo finned silently under the
Seawolf's hull, sensing the sudden drop in temperature as she swam out
of the sun-warmed water into the boat's shadow. It was mid-afternoon, several
hours after they had motored back around the southern-most tip of Whitsunday
Island and anchored off Whitehaven Beach once more.

The passengers were dispersed
in all directions. Therese and Sarah lounged topless on the small swimming
pontoon anchored several hundred metres away. The senator, Cadie, and the
two boys were on the beach with Jenny where they had set up a large shade
cloth. Lunch had been eaten under its shelter. Larissa and Kelli were on-deck,
sunbathing.

Jo moved slowly down the length of
the yacht's hull, running her bare hands over the smooth surface, searching
for any little flaws or barnacles. She'd talked Paul into the maintenance
inspection on the pretext that the previous day's storm had been the wildest
for quite some time.

So here she was. Dressed in
cutoff shorts, bikini top, weight belt, fins and mask, Jo inched her way
along the hull, trying not to get tangled in the long breathing tube running
from the air pump up on deck. The gentle, cool currents lifted the short
hairs on her arms and swirled her long, black mane around her as she moved.

Predictably, she wasn't finding
too much wrong with the Seawolf's hull, but then she hadn't expected to.
She was more interested in finding some peace and quiet.

Just want to hear myself
think for a bit, she mused as she stopped to pick off a stubborn barnacle
with her knife tip. She reckoned on about 20 minutes peace before Paul
tired of manning the air pump and hauled her back aboard.

The Seawolf floated in water
deep enough to give about 10 feet of clearance under her keel. Jo stopped
amidships and let the weight belt do its thing, drifting down to the sandy
bottom where she let herself hang.

Visibility's incredible
today, she thought, turning full circle and gazing for hundreds of
yards in each direction through the pristine water. The seabed sloped from
her left to right. The water color varied from the clear transparency of
the shallows to the darker azures and indigos of the deeper water where
the bay's bottom dropped away to open ocean. Schools of tiny fish ducked
and darted around Jo's body as she hung motionless and she let her mind
drift with them.

It's been the strangest
day so far, she reflected. God, I hope the rest of the trip isn't
like this.

Cadie had emerged from her
cabin half an hour after the senator. It hadn't taken a genius to work
out the conversation between the two women hadn't been pleasant. Cadie
was red-eyed and silent, not meeting Jo's sympathetic gaze for even a second.

Jo was surprised how much that
had hurt. Of course she had expected they would have to be incredibly circumspect
once they returned to the Seawolf.

But not even a look,
Jo thought, as she scraped some weed from the boat's keel. Something's
badly wrong. Grim possibilities bounced around the inside of her skull.
If
that bitch touches her I'll .... She blew bubbles for a few quiet seconds,
settling her temper, but not her resolve. If she crosses that line,
then paying customer or not, I'll take Cadie out of here, I swear, and
to hell with the consequences.

She drifted aimlessly for a
while, disturbing a sleepy stingray with a wave of her fin, sand billowing
up as the disgruntled creature undulated away. Jo watched as he found a
new patch of sea bottom, shaking himself until a layer of sand settled
over him, providing a perfect disguise.

I wish I could do that.
No, she reconsidered. I wish we could do that. Just disappear.

There was a tug on the breathing
tube and she glanced down at her watch.

Fifteen and a half minutes.
Paul's getting impatient in his old age. With a sigh she tucked her
knife back in its sheath on her hip. Jo kicked back up to the hull, patted
the keel one last time and pushed up to the surface.

She emerged into the baking
sun to find Paul sitting on the deck, legs dangling over the side, breathing
tube in one hand and a stubby of beer in the other. The contents were obviously
ice-cold, judging by the droplets of condensation running down the side,
and Jo found herself craving a taste.

Paul read her mind and grinned.

"I figured you'd be panting
for a coldie, skipper," he said, waving another, unopened, bottle at her.
"Come and get it."

"You twisted my arm," she agreed
and she struck out for the ladder, tossing her mask and fins up on deck
before pulling herself up the metal steps.

Unclipping the weight belt, Jo plopped
herself down next to the bare-chested crewman and accepted the cold bottle
gratefully. She sucked down a long drag of the liquid amber, releasing
an unladylike but deeply satisfied groan. She leaned back against the deck
cowling and closed her eyes against the sun.

"You all right, skip?" asked
Paul, looking at the lines of tension on his usually sanguine boss' face.
"You look like you've gone 10 rounds with Kostya Tszyu."

Jo snorted an ironic laugh,
tipping her stubby up again for another lengthy swallow.

"Gee, thanks Paulie. It's just
been a long couple of days," she said, clinking her bottle against his
in a toast. They both looked back over their shoulders at the sound of
the tinny returning from the beach. "Hey Jen," Jo called as the brunette
tied off to the stern and clambered aboard.

"G'day," Jenny replied cheerily.
"Oh god yes, give me a beer Paul, I'm parched." The crewman yanked another
bottle out of the icebox by his side as Jenny sat down cross-legged on
the deck next to them. "Thanks, darl."

Jo was content to listen to
the two crew members' conversation for a while, closing her eyes again
and trying to block out thoughts of Cadie on the beach with the senator.

She's got to do what she's
got to do, she thought morosely. And I've just got to find a way
to survive it.

An expectant silence punctuated
by Paul clearing his throat forced Jo to open her eyes to find both crew
members looking at her.

"What?"

Jenny and Paul exchanged a
glance, the brunette eventually reaching out with a foot to nudge the big
man with her toe.

"Ooooh, scary thought," Jo
teased. "I'm beginning to think you want something and that this cold beer
wasn't just from the goodness of your heart."

Paul clutched a hand to his
heart in mock hurt.

"Me, skipper?" he objected.
"Would I be that manipulative?"

Jo grinned.

"In a heartbeat. Now stop stuffing
about and tell me what's on your mind."

"Hamilton Island Race Week,"
he replied bluntly.

"Aaaaaaah, I should have known,"
Jo said, pointing her beer at him accusingly. "Here I was thinking you
were sewing that patch on the spinnaker just to give yourself something
to do the other day."

Paul had the good grace to
blush at that, but he launched into his argument nonetheless.

"Come on, skip, it's a great
idea," he said. "Toby, Jason and Cadie are pretty handy around the sheets
and winches. The others at least know enough to stay out of the way. And
we've got a great chance this year."

Jo said nothing but leaned
back against the cowling once more. Privately she agreed with Paul, but
there was some fun to be had in giving the big man a hard time. Hamilton
Island Race Week was one of the biggest yachting regattas in the country,
a once a year festival of day-long racing and night-long parties. Yachts
of all shapes and sizes could compete in various race categories, and the
Seawolf had been a narrow loser to arch rivals from another company the
year before.

"We only ever compete when
we don't have a boatload of loopies, Paul," Jo pointed out. "It's an insurance
nightmare if we rub up against someone."

Paul rolled his eyes.

"You're kidding aren't you
skip?" he protested. "When was the last time we hit anybody? You know it's
only us and Bombardier from ABC Charters who are any good in our class.
The rest stay out of our way."

It's certainly a tempting
idea, thought Jo. It would keep the passengers interested and was low
maintenance for the crew, other than the actual racing, which would be
full on.

Don't kid yourself, Jo-Jo,
she thought. It'll keep you distracted as well. And too busy to be wondering
every second where Cadie is and what the senator is up to. A happier
thought occurred to her as she remembered the last time the Americans had
been anywhere near a nightclub. And if Naomi is half the party animal
I think she is, she might even leave Cadie alone for a few hours.

"Too right. They've been talking
themselves up too. They reckon we're too chicken to take them on."

"Oh really?" Jo drawled, her
competitive spirit stirring at the thought of a week of match racing. She
crossed her legs at the ankle and drained the last of her beer. "Okay,"
she said finally. "Let's do it." She held a finger up as Paul started to
celebrate. "On one condition, Paulie. We still have to run it by the paying
passengers. If they say no, then it's no. And even then we have to get
the entry forms in somehow."

Paul looked sheepish and Jenny
laughed.

"He's already lodged them,
Jo-Jo," she said, giggling. "Weeks ago."

Jo arched an elegant at Paul.

"Pretty sure of yourself aren't
you, mate?"

He shook his head vigorously.

"No, skip. Pretty sure of you
though." He grinned and slid out of her way when she tried to swat his
shoulder. "Come off it Jo-Jo, you know you can't resist a little healthy
competition."

Blue eyes twinkled back at
him.

"I can't resist any competition,
Paulie, healthy or un."

"Woooooohooooo," he yelped,
springing to his feet and doing a little jig. "I've been wanting to nail
those bastards since last year. You beauty!"

The two women laughed at his
antics, until the big man finally slowed down, pulling another three beers
out of the icebox. Jo accepted her second gratefully, twisting the cap
off and tossing it back into the ice.

"So," she said. "When's the
first race?"

Paul flopped back down on the
deck.

"Monday at noon," he replied.
"Then each day at noon till Friday, providing the wind holds."

Jo started planning the next
few days in her head.

"Okay, so assuming the Americans
say yes, that gives us tomorrow to get ourselves around to Hamilton and
tomorrow night and Monday morning to get race trimmed," she mused.

Paul shook his head.

"That won't take us that long,
skipper," he said. "We've been running her pretty tight anyway."

Jo nodded.

"Well, I can vouch for the keel and
the hull," Jo muttered, taking another swig of beer. "Okay, let's put it
to the troops at dinner and see what they think."

"Suits me, mate," Jo said quietly,
settling back against the cowling. It's not the arse I want to kick,
but it'll do for now, she thought.

Even silent, we're still
talking to each other, Cadie thought as she leaned forward and poked
at the fire with a long stick. She took in the circle of people gathered
around the friendly blaze and smiled quietly. Jo had managed to position
herself directly opposite Cadie, who was leaning back between Naomi's legs.
The senator sat on a low chair, her right arm resting proprietarily on
Cadie's shoulder.

But Naomi can't see my eyes,
the blonde thought. And thanks to that cap, she can't see Jo's either.

The fire's glow turned the
tall skipper's pale blue eyes molten gold and Cadie willingly fell into
them. Under the peak of her cap, Jo's gaze was open and warm, though she
kept her expression impassive.

Goddess, I love her,
Cadie thought with amazement, smiling back at the dark-haired woman. A
fleeting grin flickered across Jo's mouth in reply, followed by a raised
eyebrow and a questioning tilt of her head. She wants to know what's
going on, Cadie reasoned. I wish I could tell her. Hell, I wish
we could just sail away together.

Jo watched Cadie flinch slightly
as the senator's hand shifted from her shoulder and started playing idly
with the blonde's hair.

Goddamn her. Jo suppressed
the growl that welled up in her throat, and ducked her head momentarily
to better hide her scowl. What's going on my love? I expected us to
have to be careful when we got back, but having Naomi all over you all
the time isn't usual.

I can't tell you, angel,
Cadie tried to say with her eyes. Please understand. I'm trying to protect
you until I can get her away from here. I'm sorry it hurts.

Jo couldn't tear her eyes from
the blonde's. Other conversations swirled around her and she tried to keep
half an ear tuned to them, but for the most part all she saw were the darker
than normal, gold-flecked eyes across the fire.

Part of me wants the next
10 days over and done with, she thought. At least then things will
happen. They may not be good things, but anything's got to be better than
watching them together.

"Tell us about the racing,
Jo," said Toby, from over to her left. She disengaged from Cadie's eyes
reluctantly and smiled at the man's enthusiasm. The passengers had willingly
agreed to them entering the regatta, the boys particularly excited by the
prospect.

"Well, it's a different triangular
course every day," Jo replied, feeling Cadie's gaze continue to track her.
"If the wind blows like it normally does around here, then each race should
take about three hours, from noon each day."

"Is there any prize money?"
asked Therese. She was sitting to Cadie's left.

"Mhmmmm. A thousand dollars
for the winner of each race, and $10,000 for the overall class winner at
the end of the week," Jo answered. "So the racing can get a little serious."
She grinned.

"And who gets the money?" That
came from the senator, whose fingers continued to trail across Cadie's
shoulder possessively.

It figures she would ask
that, Cadie and Jo thought simultaneously.

"Well," drawled Jo. "It's Ron's
boat, so technically the money goes to Cheswick Marine." She grinned again
at the slightly disappointed looks around the fire. "Except that Ron made
a policy years ago that whoever's on board shares the money." Smiles brightened
at that. "So whatever we win, we split between all of us, okay?"

"Alllllllllriiiiiiiight," Toby
whooped, high-fiving his partner.

Jo laughed.

"We haven't won anything yet,
mate."

"We will," Jason said confidently.

Jo nodded.

"If we sail well we will,"
she agreed, leaning back on her elbows and running a handful of sand through
her fingers. "We're gonna need about three of you to help us out at any
one time. You up for it?"

"You bet, Jo-Jo," said Toby.
Jason nodded vigorously beside him.

"I'm up for it," Cadie said
quietly. Jo smiled at her and tilted her head in acknowledgment.

"Me too," said the senator
quickly, despite having not once lifted a finger to help the crew since
coming aboard. Jo watched Cadie's eyes roll at that and fought hard not
to laugh out loud. Instead she opted to be gracious.

"Thank you, Senator," she murmured.

Just then Paul entered the
circle from one side, and Jenny from the other a few seconds later.

Subtle, thought Jo,
an affectionate smile creasing her face. She caught Cadie's eye again and
saw the same thought crossing the blonde's mind. Nice to know one shipboard
romance is working out okay.

She looks years younger
when she smiles, thought Cadie, allowing herself a few seconds to just
appreciate the angular, dark beauty of the woman sitting opposite her.
She tingled at the memory of Jo's touch. Hard to believe that was only
this morning. It feels like it was a week ago. Again their eyes met
and Cadie felt the blush rising, realizing her thoughts and the skipper's
were traveling along similar lines. Dark blue eyes looked up at her from
under the peak of the cap and what she saw there set Cadie's pulse racing.
Again.

Jo groaned inwardly, wishing
the world would disappear.

"Tacking!" Jo yelled as she
spun the wheel as hard to starboard as she could. The three men scuttled
around the deck, ducking the boom and clearing the sheets and sails as
Jenny and Cadie worked the winches hard. "Go, go, go," she urged as the
boom and rigging slammed across the boat, swinging them round in a tight
arc. "Go hard, go hard!"

Jo looked up and held her breath,
exhaling as the mainsail filled and they regained momentum.

Didn't lose too much with
that one, she thought, pleased with the efforts of her makeshift crew.
And it's just as well. She glanced across to Bombardier, which was
on the opposite tack and pretty much neck-and-neck with Seawolf as both
yachts plowed down the third and final reach to the finish line. This
is going to be a close-run thing.

She looked back down the length
of the Seawolf. Cadie and Jenny were flat on their backs, breathing hard
next to their respective winches. They'd lost the first race of the series,
mainly because everyone was scrambling to learn the race routine, but things
were much improved today. Jo grinned.

"Good work guys," she shouted.
"Maybe two more tacks and we should be there."

Cadie lifted her head up and
looked back at the skipper.

"Are we in front?" she panted.

Jo watched as Bombardier headed
towards them on the opposite tack.

"Not sure. It's close," she
replied. "Right now it looks like they're going to cross in front of us,
but it won't be by much."

Cadie nodded and dropped her
head back down, folding arms across her eyes and breathing deeply.

Damn, that grinding is a
good workout, she thought. Her shoulders ached and her lungs burned
as she tried to recover before the next tack. Something cold touched her
knee and she glanced down to see Therese holding a stubby of beer out to
her.

"Thanks," she murmured as she
took the bottle and sat up to drink.

It was a glorious day. The
cloudless sky arched above them but the stiff sea breeze took the sting
out of the sun's burn. Cadie looked around and took in the view. Hamilton
Island was behind them and ahead was an open expanse of ocean, with the
yacht club's launch away in the distance, marking the race finish.

Naomi and the other women passengers
were lounging around the cockpit, chatting and drinking and generally doing
their best to stay out of the way of the crew.

"Here we go," yelled Jo as
Bombardier loomed up on their starboard side. "Prepare to tack if we need
to bear away, people." They were close enough now to hear the crew yelling
on the other boat. Cadie jumped up and grabbed the handle on her grinder,
ready if they had to retrim the sails. Paul ran to the bow.

"Jesus, it's going to be close,"
muttered Jo to herself. Hold your nerve Jo-Jo, hold your nerve. You
only have to miss by an inch. The other 50-footer ploughed towards
them and Jo opened her mouth to call the bear-away order, but Paul beat
her to it.

"You're right, skipper," he
yelled. "She's going to cross in front."

A few seconds later he was
proved right as Bombardier slid past their bowsprit, close enough to see
grinning faces.

"We've got you again, Paulie,"
shouted the Seawolf crewman's opposite number as the yachts pulled away
from each other again.

"Long way to go you mouthy
bastard," replied Paul under his breath, as he made his way back to the
helm. "Close skipper," he said as he grinned at Jo, whose black hair was
whipping around her head.

She beamed back at him, feeling
the adrenaline rush.

I've missed this, she
realized. She caught Cadie's eye as the blonde sat down on the edge of
the cockpit cover, dangling her legs over the edge. Their eyes locked for
the briefest of moments before Cadie tore hers away, a smile playing across
her lips. I miss you, Jo mentally projected. I miss talking with
you. I miss touching you.

"Hey, skip, where are you?"
blurted Jenny. "They're tacking again!"

"Shiiiiiiiiiit," Jo exclaimed.
"Come on, guys, prepare to tack."

Everyone scattered to their
stations again and soon they were repeating the routine, swinging back
onto the port tack.

"We're losing ground, skipper,"
Paul said shortly after as he watched Bombardier cross easily in front
of them. "No danger of a collision this time."

"All we can do is trim it tighter,
Paulie," Jo replied, looking up into the rigging. "What do you think?"

The big man shrugged.

"Bit dodgy, skip," he said,
looking back at her. "We've only got one spare mainsail."

"Don't want to waste our prize
money on a new sail," Jo agreed.

"Don't want to go two races down
either," Cadie piped up from where she was sitting.

"Easy for you to say, Cadie,"
Jo retorted, laughing. "You don't have to face my boss." She's a competitor,
she thought. I like that. She pondered the problem as Bombardier
threatened to take an unassailable lead. "What the hell, Paulie, let's
go for it."

"Yes!" yelled Cadie, jumping
to her feet, evoking chuckles from around the cockpit.

"And you call me competitive,"
Jo muttered to Paul, provoking another guffaw from the big man as she took
back the helm.

"And her butt is cuter than
yours too," he answered conspiratorially, as he passed her on his way forward.

Can't argue with that, thought
Jo appreciatively, taking in the sight of Cadie crouching over her assigned
winch. Can't argue with that at all.

But then, like a cloud crossing
the sun, the senator from Illinois was in Jo's face. The skipper didn't
flinch, instead fixing Naomi with the steeliest ice-chip glare she could
muster. She took a degree of satisfaction when the stocky American took
a backward step.

"Enjoying the view, Miss Madison?"
the senator asked coldly. Jo didn't reply, just continued to look Naomi
in the eye. "I would appreciate it if you could manage to keep your interactions
with my partner purely professional from now on."

"Right now, that includes talking
about the race, Senator," Jo replied quietly, aware that Cadie was watching
the conversation with wide, scared eyes. There's something here I'm not
getting, she thought. "And as Cadie is acting as part of my crew, I can't
really avoid speaking to her."

A deceptively friendly smile
played across the senator's lips but never quite reached her eyes.

"Then try to do it without leering,"
she said. "I'm sure you wouldn't want to do something you might regret."
With that she turned away, not affording Jo the chance to respond.

Oh, she is begging to be
bitch-slapped, Jo found her inner demon saying. And I am just the
bitch to do it. I hope I get half a reason to, that's all I'll need. Paying
customer be damned.

Cadie's eyes were still on
her, and Jo took the chance while Naomi's back was turned to flash the
blonde a reassuring smile. She got a wobbly response and felt her heart
ache.

This so sucks, she thought,
willing herself to concentrate as the Seawolf neared the mark she'd designated
as the place to tack.

"All right, let's go," she yelled,
pushing everything but the race out of her mind.

Cadie arched her back, rolling
her neck around to ease the ache from sitting for the past hour hunched
over her laptop. Earlier in the evening she had made the short walk up
the hill from Hamilton Marina to the hotel. There she'd hooked up to the
internet and downloaded what appeared to be half the planet's e-mail. Since
then she had been sifting through the posts, sorting the ones that needed
a reply from the ones that could wait until she was back in the States.

Funny how I can’t seem to
call it home anymore, she pondered, kneading the back of her neck with
her thumb.

So far Naomi hadn't pushed
the issue of her closing down her business, but Cadie suspected that was
only because it hadn't occurred to the senator that she needed to push
it yet. She was sure things would be different back in Chicago.

Cadie reached for the computer
again, wincing slightly at the tugging ache across her shoulders and the
backs of her arms, a legacy of four days of manning the winches and grinders
up on deck.

Four days, four races and
all square at two wins each, Cadie mused. Tomorrow's going to be
a big day. Seawolf had indeed gone two races down after the first two
days of the regatta but with each day Toby, Jason and Cadie had become
better and better at making the big yacht race smoothly. Yesterday they
had edged Bombardier by the barest of margins but today Seawolf had claimed
the money by almost two boat lengths. And tomorrow there's $11,000 up
for grabs, she thought excitedly. And a whole lot more besides.

She grinned to herself as she
remembered Jo's delighted reaction when they had leveled the series that
afternoon.

Like a kid in a candy store,
she thought. And that smile. She closed her eyes and brought to
mind the 1000-watt grin that had split Jo's face when the gun went off
as they crossed the finish line. Wow. I'd give a lot to see that again.

"What's so interesting?" growled
Naomi from where she sat on the bed behind Cadie. "You've been reading
that same post for the last 10 minutes."

Back to reality, Cadie.

"It's from Mom," she said out
loud. "She says hello, by the way."

Naomi grunted.

"She wants to know if we're
going to have time to go up and visit before we have to get back to DC."
Cadie heard the words coming out of her mouth, but it felt like she was
talking about somebody else's life. Boy, I wish I could talk to you
right now, Mom. Without an audience.

"Probably not," Naomi replied.
"The House reconvenes the Monday after we get back. And driving up to Madison
with jet lag just to turn round and come back again doesn't really appeal."

"I guess not," Cadie murmured.
She found it incredibly hard to imagine being back in a Midwest winter.
No,
she corrected herself. I'm finding it hard to imagine going back to
my old life. The realization was both liberating and depressing.
But
I'm going to have to. At least for now. She looked around the small,
tasteful cabin. I wonder when I will be able to come back.

"I'm going to take a shower,"
Naomi said, standing and picking up a towel from the bottom of the bed.

"Okay," Cadie acknowledged,
closing out windows and shutting down the laptop. She sighed. I wonder
which nightclub she's going to drag me to this evening. "Where's the
party tonight?"

"Club up at the hotel," the
senator replied gruffly. "Wear something short." And with that she closed
the bathroom door behind her.

"Well actually, senator, I
wasn't really looking for any fashion advice," muttered Cadie to the empty
room. It's been a party every night since Monday and there'll be another
tomorrow night, especially if we win. She sighed again.
I need a
cup of coffee.

She opened the door to the
cabin and walked out into the Seawolf's main lounge. And right into an
open blue gaze that bathed her in a bone-deep wash of warmth.

"H-hello," she murmured, unable,
not to mention totally unwilling, to tear her eyes away from Jo's. She
moved closer, joining the taller woman behind the counter in the galley.

"Hi there," Jo replied, feeling
a quiet joy welling up inside her at the sight of the blonde's wrinkle-nosed
smile. "Where's your watchdog?"

Cadie bit her lip.

"In the shower," she said,
flicking a quick glance towards the cabin door, her stomach lurching at
the thought of being caught.

A strong arm snaked around
her waist and pulled her close. Cadie turned back and looked up into Jo's
warm regard, suddenly feeling a shield of protection envelop her.

"I miss you, Jo-Jo," she whispered.

"And I you, love," Jo replied,
leaning down and capturing Cadie's lips in the softest of kisses imaginable.
The blonde reached up, sliding her arms around the tall woman's neck and
pulling her down, deepening the contact into a sweet exploration. Finally
Jo broke away, resting her forehead against Cadie's. She closed her eyes
and felt her heart nestling into a very safe place. "What's going on, sweetheart?"
she asked quietly.

"Is she threatening you?" Jo
asked, fighting to keep a rein on her growing anger.

Cadie remained silent, dropping
her eyes to escape Jo's scrutiny.

A light came on in the skipper's
head.

Aaaaah. Now I get it.

"She's threatening me, isn't
she?" she said, reading the acknowledgement in the blinking green eyes
that quickly tracked back to hers. "Cadie, she can't do anything to hurt
me."

"Yes, Jo, she can." Cadie pulled
away from Jo and began putting together two cups of coffee. "You don't
understand how powerful she is. She can hurt us both." She clattered cups
on the counter, frustration making her hands clumsy.

"Arcadia," Jo said calmly,
stepping forward and taking the shorter woman's hands in her own. She waited
until the blonde turned back and met her gaze, tears welling in her eyes.
"Listen to me, angel. I can handle anything she can throw at me. I've come
up against a lot worse than her, I promise."

They both startled at a noise
from the direction of Cadie's cabin.

"Jo, please just trust me with
this," she said hurriedly, pleading with her eyes. "She can do a whole
lot of damage to you, the company, all of it. Just let me get her back
to the States and she'll soon forget all about you."

Jo couldn't argue with those
big green eyes. She leaned forward and again rested her forehead against
Cadie's.

"I do trust you," she whispered,
feeling tears close to the surface. "But this hurts. It hurts seeing the
way she's treating you, and not being able to do anything about it. And
..." She swallowed. "And it hurts that you're leaving with her. I know
that was always going to be the case, but the way she's being ... just
makes it worse."

Cadie cupped her hands around
Jo's face.

"Nothing's changed in my heart,
Jossandra," she said fiercely. "I will come back. I need to come back.
But for now I need to keep you safe more. And if that means staying away
from you and putting up with her touching me ..." She shuddered involuntarily
and Jo tightened her arms around her waist.

"I hate her touching you,"
she muttered, squeezing Cadie gently.

"I know. And I hate the way
she touches me. But if it means doing what she tells me to do for a while
... then I'll do it. Gladly."

A tear overflowed and tracked
down Jo's cheek. Cadie caught it with the pad her thumb and brushed it
away.

"Have you noticed we never
seem to cry at the same time?" she said with a weak smile, leaning in and
kissing the tip of Jo's nose. "One of us is always being the strong one."

They both laughed softly at
that and then got lost once more in their connection.

"Has anyone ever told you you
have the most beautiful eyes, Miss Jones," Jo murmured.

"Nobody whose opinion matters
much to me anymore," Cadie replied, pulling the skipper's head down again
for another long, lingering kiss. Louder noises from the direction of Cadie's
cabin broke them apart, breathless and hungry for more.

"You'd better get back in there,"
Jo whispered into the blonde's ear, feeling Cadie's arms tighten around
her in response. "I'll be here waiting for you, darling. Always."

"I love you." Cadie disengaged
quickly, grabbing the two coffee cups and heading back to the cabin door.
She looked back over her shoulder and met an encouraging smile with one
of her own, before she pushed open the door and disappeared inside.

Damn, thought Jo, rubbing
her eyes with one tired hand. This isn't getting any easier.

Twenty minutes later Jo was
sitting up on the cockpit cowling with Paul, the spare mainsail gathered
around them in large, cream-colored ruffles. They were going over the kevlar
with a finetooth comb.

"I guess this means we're going
all-out tomorrow, eh boss?" Paul said with a grin as they painstakingly
stitched a patch to a needy bit of sail.

Jo cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Well, I called Ron, and the
prospect of $11,000 on top of the $2000 we've already won has him drooling,"
she said. "So he said go for it. It'll be a boost for the company if we
can win that trophy."

Paul snorted.

"It won't do us any harm either,"
he replied.

"I thought of that," Jo said,
beaming.

Just then she caught sight
of Naomi and Cadie emerging from the main cabin, dressed up for a night
out. The blonde was in a shimmering green mini-dress that managed to accentuate
both her eye color and her shapely legs. Jo had a hard time tearing her
eyes away.

"Pick your jaw up off the deck,
skipper," Paul said softly in her ear, surprising Jo into driving the large
sewing needle into her thumb.

"Shit," she muttered, sucking
the digit hard to take away the ache. She glanced up again to see Cadie,
who obviously knew exactly what Jo had been gawking at and was struggling
to keep her laughter silent.

"Not going out tonight, you
two?" asked the senator, taking Cadie's hand and pulling her towards the
gangplank.

"Got some repairs to do before
tomorrow," Jo said shortly, wrapping her bleeding thumb in a cleaning rag
she had stuffed in her pocket. "Have a good time." But Naomi hadn't waited
for a response, and had already taken them ashore. Cadie gave a small wave
behind the senator's back and Jo returned it with a tiny smile.

"Y'know what skip?"

"What's that Paulie," Jo murmured,
watching the Americans walk up the hill towards the hotel.

"The more politicians I meet,
the more I wonder what kind of scumbag you have to be to become one."

Jo turned and looked at her
crewman, eyebrows raised in surprise at the usually affable man's criticism
of a passenger.

"What?" he retorted. "Come
on skipper, don't tell me you don't agree with me. That one's got a nasty
streak as wide as her backside. She treats Cadie like crap."

Jo nodded.

"No argument from me, mate,"
she said softly.

There was a pause as Jo resumed
sewing, head bent over her work.

"You're real gone on her, aren't
you boss?" Paul asked quietly, realising he'd hit the mark when Jo's hands
stopped moving and a blush crept up her neck. She glanced up at him, nodding
slowly.

"Yeah," she replied. "Yeah,
I am."

He whistled softly.

"Picked yourself a tough challenge
there."

Jo snorted with laughter.

"I think the challenge picked
me, Paulie," she said, smiling at him as they resumed work on the sail
patch. "It just seemed to be there from the moment we met."

He nudged her with his shoulder.

"Ya big softie."

"Yeah, yeah .. give me a break,
will you?" She quirked an eyebrow at him. "Besides, what about you? You've
been spotted being more than a little starry-eyed lately yourself."

Jenny came up from below, carrying
a tray of sandwiches and cups of coffee, which she slid onto the cowling
in front of Jo and Paul. She leaned her elbows on the deck and placed a
hand on the crewman's knee.

"There's actually a pretty
good reason for that, skipper," said the perky brunette with a grin.

"Thought we were going to wait
a while to tell people," Paul said as he put his hand over Jenny's.

"This isn't people, hon, it's
Jo. That's different," Jen replied.

"Well somebody tell me something,"
interjected Jo. "Or am I going to have to torture it out of you?"

Jo whooped in delight, scrambling
forward and leaning down to give Jenny a congratulory hug.

"That's fantastic! I knew it!!"
She sat back up and poked Paul in the stomach. "You didn't need to go sneaking
around y'know." She clapped her hands together and bounced up and down
on the spot with excitement. "When?"

The couple looked at each other
and shrugged.

"As soon as this trip is done,"
replied Jenny. "It's not going to be a big deal, Jo-Jo. Just you and a
few other friends, my parents and Paul's dad. Just an excuse for a great
big party."

"Sounds wonderful to me," Jo
said, smiling. They all relaxed into a comfortable silence for a bit. "Awww
guys, I think it's great. It's really good to see you both happy."

Jenny climbed up onto the cowling
and sat down next to her fiance, wrapping her arms around him as Paul went
back to sewing the sail patch.

"Thanks, boss," she said. She
and Paul exchanged a look. "So … what about you and the cute blonde?"

Jo groaned.

"Two minutes!" yelled Jo. She
watched as her five crewmembers scrambled for their stations as the Seawolf
jockeyed for position along the start line. "Therese!" The attorney turned
at the sound of her name and Jo gestured to her. "Give me a hand for minute?"

Therese clambered out of the
cockpit and made her way aft to the portside helm station where Jo was
juggling the wheel with one hand and trying to keep her unruly hair out
of her face with the other.

"Take the wheel for me for
a bit?" she asked the attorney. "My hair's driving me nuts."

"Um, Jo. I don't know anything
about this," Therese said hesitantly as she stepped in front of the skipper
and tentatively put her hands on the wheel.

"Piece of cake," Jo reassured
her. She leaned forward and pointed over Therese's right shoulder. "See
that flag on the bow of that big motor launch ahead of us." Therese nodded.
"Okay, just keep her pointed that way. Turn the wheel a bit to get a feel
of how she responds." She waited patiently as the attorney experimented,
pulling the Seawolf off course slightly. "Great. Now get her back on the
right course. Perfect. Now hold her there."

Therese nodded and Jo stepped
aside, ducking down into the companionway where she had stowed a small
bag of supplies under the map table. She dug out a cap and a hair band,
impatiently pulling her dark locks back into a rough ponytail before securing
it with the band.

"Jo!"

That sounded a bit panicky, Jo thought
as she threw on the baseball cap, quickly threading the ponytail through
the gap at the back.

"JO!!"

She sprinted back up the stairs.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming," she
said as she passed Naomi, Sarah, Kelli and Larissa in the cockpit. "Thanks
Therese."

"Sorry, but it looked like
they were all coming at us at once," said the somewhat flustered attorney.

Jo laughed.

"No problem," she said. "I
know it looks a little daunting right now." She looked down at her watch.
"One minute, people."

Time to get your brain in
the game, Jossandra, she thought to herself. She looked around at the
teeming waters around the Seawolf. There were 10 50-foot yachts, all jostling
for a good run at the starting line. Any boat that crossed the mark early
had to bear away and do another circuit before being allowed to start racing,
so timing was crucial in the run up to the gun. Gotta get this right,
she thought. Jo had opted to aim for the northern end of the line, as had
three other yachts, but Bombardier and the other five had headed for the
southern end.

Immediately to starboard and
ahead of Seawolf one of their competitors was in the process of getting
it horribly wrong. The line loomed as the clock ticked down and the skipper
could be heard yelling at the crew to bear away.

They're gonna miss the start,
Jo thought with satisfaction. One down, eight more to beat.

"Thirty seconds," she shouted.
Cadie crouched by her winch on the port side, immediately in front of Jo,
amidships. Jenny was on the starboard side. Paul and Toby were further
forward, trimming the foresail and organising sail changes. Jason was down
in the sail hold - more usually used as the crew quarters - ready to pull
out or stow sails as needed.

"Here we go!" Jo warned the
crew, noting their heightened tension. Gently she eased the Seawolf away
slightly so they were running almost parallel to the start line. "Five,
four, three, two, one … " The gun fired and Jo ducked the yacht's nose
over the line instantly, judging the timing perfectly.

"Nice one skipper," came the
shout from Paul at the bow.

Jo grinned and set the yacht
on the first of many tacks up the reach to the mark.

S'gonna be a long day,
she thought happily.

"Wind's picking up skipper,"
said Paul. He had taken over the helm after they'd turned the first mark.
The second reach was another tacking leg, but the third and final reach
would be downwind, and Jo planned on a spinnaker run.

She looked up into the rigging, scanning
for any visible signs that anything was close to breaking.

So far, so good, she thought.
But
we're not going as fast as we could. She looked back to find Bombardier.

"We've got about a half mile
on her, Paul," she said. "But I don't think that's going to be enough once
we hit the final reach."

The crewman nodded in agreement.

"They've got eight experienced
crew on board," he said. "These guys are learning fast, and they're pretty
good." He gestured towards the Seawolf's three recruits. "But learning
how to get a spinnaker up is going to take some time."

"Okay." She stepped up onto
the rim of the cockpit. "Toby! Get Jason out of his hole and come on back
here." She waited for the two men to come aft and take a seat on the cowling,
then she looked around at her crew and passengers. "We're doing pretty
well," she said, grinning at the smiles that generated. "We are going to
need to increase our lead a bit though, because once we turn the second
mark there are a couple of tricky little manouevres we've got to do that
may cost us some time. Hoisting a spinnaker for the first time is always
a bit of wild ride."

She spread her feet a little
wider as the Seawolf bucked over a bigger than usual wave, unconsciously
adjusting her centre of gravity to maintain her balance.

Look at her, thought
Cadie with a grin, more than happy she was sitting above Naomi, who couldn't
see her without an effort. She's like a pirate king … born to be on
a boat. Beautiful.

"So," Jo continued. "We need
to ratchet it up a couple of notches. That carries a bit of a risk though
because something on the boat may break. So I need you all to be extra
careful about safety. Crew, make sure you have your gloves on and everyone,
please keep hands and feet away from winches, sheets, rigging cables, whatever,
unless you absolutely have to. Things fly around pretty quickly when they
break. Okay?"

She waited for answering nods
from everyone, feeling the warmth from Cadie's smile wash over her.

Mmmmmmmm. Race? What race?
She laughed at herself and snapped her mind back into gear.

"We're coming up on our next
tack. Let's get that done and then we'll crank it up."

The crew scattered to their
positions again. Jo looked down at the remaining passengers.

"Are you ladies willing to
sit on the high side if we need you to, to give us a little more stability?"
All but the senator nodded, even Kelli and Larissa, who normally were indifferent
to the workings of the yacht.

Nothing like the smell of
impending filthy lucre to get a junkie motivated, Jo thought grimly.

Halfway down the second reach
disaster struck.

Things had been going well
after they rounded the mark. The crew had wound the Seawolf up so tight
the rigging was singing, vibrating with tension as the wind ripped through
it. They'd stretched their lead over Bombardier to almost a mile by Jo's
reckoning and she had been quietly optimistic as they headed for the bottom
mark. She had the crew lay out the spare mainsail along the deck under
the boom just in case.

She looked up at the full,
straining sails, knowing they were at the limit of what they could ask
of the big boat.

This is the point where
Australia II snapped in half, she thought, remembering the moment that
particular Americas Cup campaign had come to a grinding, then sinking halt,
scattering the 12m yacht's crew into the water.

Seawolf tilted over at almost
45 degrees to port, the wind bearing in hard from the starboard side. The
crew and passengers - except for the senator, who sat huddled in a corner
of the cockpit - were lined up along the high side, legs dangling over
the edge. All were wearing lifejackets as a precaution.

Jo looked to her right, blinking
rapidly as she recognised the telltale ruffles on the surface of the water
that indicated an approaching gust of stronger than normal wind.

"Paul!" she yelled. "Bullet!!"

Paul and Jenny leapt up and
dove for the winches, bleeding some tension out of the sails, but it was
too little, too late and the wind gust slammed into the mainsail.

The boat tilted to an even
steeper angle momentarily but then the sail exploded with a sound like
a gunshot, a huge rent ripping down its length. The sudden loss of momentum
jerked the yacht upright with a rush, the hull slapping down on the water
violently. Cadie, who had half climbed to her feet when she heard Jo's
yell, was caught off-balance, toppling backwards over the edge and into
the sea.

"Paulie, get 'em down," shouted
Jo, as she wrestled the wheel, pulling the still moving yacht around until
it was pointing directly into the wind, the remaining sails flapping uselessly.
Paul, Jenny and the two men scrambled to pull down the ripped remnants
of the mainsail, as well as the foresail, trying to stop the yacht in its
tracks as soon as possible. Meanwhile Jo grabbed the nearest life-ring
and frisbeed it to Cadie who was, thankfully, fully conscious and seemingly
unhurt.

Jesus, the senator is gonna
have a cow, Jo thought as she watched Cadie strike out for the floating
ring, even as the yacht slipped further past the blonde. Thank Christ
she didn't hit her head on the way in.

True to form, Naomi was on
her feet, screaming at the skipper.

"Stop this fucking boat!" she
yelled. Jo turned to try and placate the senator, but she was having none
of it, brushing past the taller woman and rushing to the stern. "Don’t
just stand there, woman. Get in there and bring her back!"

"Senator, we’re not just standing
around. Everything that can be done to stop us, is being done. And as you
can see," she pointed in Cadie's direction, where the blonde had reached
the life-ring and was floating inside its confines, calmly waiting to be
picked up. "Cadie is okay. She's not going anywhere and we're doing our
best to pick her up as quickly as possible."

"That's not good enough," Naomi
shouted. "Get in there and pull her out!"

For god's sake, thought
Cadie, brushing dripping hair out of her face and treading water.

"Naomi," she yelled. "Would
you calm down, I'm fine." I swear she thinks I'm totally helpless. Mind
you, I'm glad I'm getting back onboard any minute. This water is dark and
deep.

She decided not to let her
mind wander too far down that track, instead focusing on Jo, who had pushed
past the senator and was hauling in the line attached to the life-ring.
She felt the tug and let herself be reeled in. Like a great big sunburnt
fish, she thought, giggling to herself incongruously. As she came in
closer to the yacht, she grinned wetly up at Jo, who caught her eye and
smiled back.

Finally she was in reach of
the transom and she levered herself back up onto the platform.

"Nice catch, Captain Ahab," she said
softly to Jo who suppressed a laugh.

"You sure you're okay?" she
asked.

"Just a bit wet, but otherwise
fine," the blonde replied, shaking seawater from her hair.

"Get out of my way, Madison,"
the senator growled, elbowing past Jo and grabbing Cadie's arm, dragging
her back into the cockpit. "I'll sue this goddamn company for all it’s
worth," she said, threatening Jo with a wagging finger.

"Sue for what, Naomi?" her
partner protested as she picked up a towel and began drying herself off.
"Wet clothes? Forget about it."

"Skipper!"

Jo looked up and saw Paul standing
by the boom, pointing to their port side. She turned in the direction he
was looking and saw Bombardier bearing down on them at full speed.

Jo glanced around the deck of the
Seawolf, taking in the expectant faces of crew and passengers.

"Everyone else okay?" she asked.
Nods all round. "Right. Let's go. Paul, Toby, Jason - get that new mainsail
rigged. Jenny, you and Cadie haul the foresail back up. Let's get this
show back on the road."

Everyone exploded into movement,
leaving Jo and Naomi holding each other's gaze for a few cold seconds.

Come on you harpy, Jo
thought. Give me half an excuse.

The senator blinked first,
hissing in disgust and flouncing back to her corner of the cockpit, grabbing
another bottle of beer from the icebox on the way.

She's all bluff, Jo
realized suddenly. I wonder if Cadie has figured that out yet.

She moved back to the helm
and watched as Jenny and Cadie hauled the smaller foresail up, then set
about trimming it with the forward winches. It would take a while yet for
the men to have the spare mainsail ready, but in the meantime they could
make at least some headway.

"Trimmed, skip," came the shout
from Jenny.

Jo waved her response and began
the tug of war with the inertia-heavy wheel, forcing the rudder around
until the wind began to catch the foresail again. Bombardier was now well
ahead of them and she knew it was going to take some kind of miracle for
them to win the prize.

But I'll be damned if we're
going to wimp out on the fight, she thought, feeling the competitive
rush flow through her.

They had come through hoisting
the spinnaker amazingly well, reflected Jo, taking in the members of the
crew lying around in various poses of physical exhaustion all over the
deck. She couldn't see Paul or Cadie and guessed they were forward of the
mast still.

Jo looked up, watching the
huge, balloon-like multi-colored spinnaker fill and billow, pulling the
Seawolf along at top speed. Ahead of them, by about half a mile, was Bombardier.
They hadn't gained any on their main rivals, but they hadn't lost any more
water to them either, so for now, Jo was satisfied. The other eight yachts
in their class were well behind them.

Jenny recovered enough to pull
herself up and she wandered back to Jo, handing the skipper a beer.

"I'll take it for a bit, boss,"
she said.

"Thanks, Jen. Good job by the way."
She grinned at her smaller crewmate and got a tired smile back.

"We’re not going to win though,
are we skip?" Jenny asked, her disappointment showing on her face.

Jo shrugged.

"Not unless they run into some
dead air, or break something," she conceded. "But you know this is a flukey
game, Jen. Anything can happen." She stepped aside and let Jenny take the
wheel. "Keep Bombardier at about 10 o'clock, hon. I'll be back."

"Aye, aye captain."

"Oh shut up."

Laughing, Jo picked her way
forward, stepping over bodies and greeting each of the crew and passengers
as she came to them. Toby and Jason looked like they'd died and gone to
heaven.

"Having fun, fellas?" she asked,
fairly certain of the answer.

"Oh you bet, Jo!" enthused
Jason. He was sporting a lump on his forehead from a close encounter with
the boom, but otherwise seemed happy. "M'just sorry we blew that mainsail
out. Doesn't look like we can win it from here."

"Yeah, sorry about that skipper,"
agreed Toby.

"Not your fault, guys," Jo
said. "Purely mine. I pushed it too hard at the wrong moment. But you two
are naturals. You should do more sailing when you get home."

She continued forward, finding
both Paul and Cadie flat on their backs. Paul appeared to be asleep, but
Cadie was shading her eyes with a gloved hand, gazing up into the colors
of the spinnaker. Emblazoned on a deep, rich blue background was the Cheswick
Marine logo. Jo crouched down next to the blonde and gently touched her
knee.

"Hello, sailor."

That provoked laughter from both
supine figures.

"Oh, I'm out of here if that's
the quality of humour we've sunk to," groaned Paul, jumping to his feet.

Cadie sat up, meeting a twinkling
set of eyes the same color as the spinnaker. Just then the Seawolf slid
down the face of the wave she was surfing and dug her nose into the trough.
A spray of seawater engulfed the trio leaving them shaking themselves like
a pack of wet dogs.

Cadie giggled. It was the first
time she'd seen Jo look less than impressed by the ocean. But the scowl
that touched the tall skipper's face didn't last long, good humor returning
as she met the shining green eyes in front of her.

"Come on," Jo said. "You shouldn't
stay forward of the mast in these kind of conditions."

"I'm okay, Jo-Jo," Cadie replied.
"I'm having fun."

Paul chimed in.

"She's right Cadie," he said.
"If the mast snaps, you're in the worst possible place up here."

Cadie sighed.

"Okay, okay," she grumbled.
Paul disappeared aft. "It's also about the only place on the boat Naomi
won't follow me."

Jo nodded, suddenly seeing the lines
of strain on the blonde's face.

If I think it's bad watching them
be together how much worse would it be to be joined at the hip with the
senator? she wondered.

"I'm sorry," she said.

Cadie brightened, shaking her
head with a smile.

"Don't be," she replied. "I'm
actually having a great time. Entering this regatta was an inspired idea."

"Well, we can thank Paul for that,"
Jo said. She opened her mouth to say something else, but another wave splattered
across the bow, soaking them both again. She opened her eyes to find a
dripping blonde, giggling at her.

"Sorry, but you look so pissed
when that happens," Cadie chortled. "Like somehow you don't expect it."

Jo laughed, sitting down next
to the blonde.

"One of the good things about
being the skipper and not the crew, is you get to stay nice and dry in
the stern most of the time," she said. She wiped the saltwater of her face.
"That's the theory anyway."

"S'not working, skipper."

"No, it's not," Jo replied,
squeezing the water out of the bottom of her shirt. She turned to face
Cadie and the sudden sense of connection between them was almost palpable.

Suddenly bashful, Jo ducked her head,
looking up at the blonde through long, damp eyelashes.

"When was that?" she said huskily.

"You were standing on the rim
of the cockpit, and you had your arms crossed and you looked like the world
was yours for the taking." Jo chuckled, feeling the blush rising despite
the cold water. Cadie leaned in towards her. "It was about the sexiest
thing I've ever seen."

Jo cleared her throat, fighting
the urge to kiss the blonde right here and now, senator be damned.

"I think we both need a cold
shower," she said, smiling. A movement in the ocean caught her eye. "And
I think we're about to get one." Seawolf's nose dove deep into the trough
of the wave in front of it and again the pair were doused. "Come on, or
we’re both going to end up over the side."

This time the blonde didn't
argue, letting Jo pull her upright.

"I think it might be a good idea
if I went down into the sail hold and made my way back below decks," the
skipper said. "That way Naomi's not gonna know which way's up, with any
luck."

Cadie nodded, suddenly glum
again.

"I'm sorry Jo. This is an awful
lot of shit to go through just for a paying customer."

"Hey." Jo waited until Cadie's
eyes lifted to meet her own. "You're not just a paying customer, and I
don’t think you have been from the moment we laid eyes on each other."

Cadie smiled gently.

"What am I then?" she asked.

Jo paused, tilting her head
as she thought about it.

"I think you're who I'm supposed
to be with," she said.

Cadie's heart lurched in her
chest at and long seconds went by as they gazed wordlessly at each other,
just enjoying the connection, oblivious to the bucking of the deck under
their feet.

"Oh, we are in so much trouble,"
Cadie muttered, laughing at the rakish grin that lit up Jo's face.

"Understatement," the skipper
replied. "Now get going, crewman."

"Aye, aye, captain," Cadie
responded, snapping a smart salute.

"Oh shut up," Jo laughed, watching
the very wet blonde turn and make her way aft.

"We're running out of water,
skip," Paul said.

"Yup, I know mate," Jo replied.
She was sitting on the rail of the stern, holding the wheel in place with
her right foot, propping her chin on her hand, elbow on her other knee.
The spinnaker reach had been a straight speed run, with no tactics involved
beyond picking the right sail and the fastest line to the finish. "Not
much we can do about it. It's …" She stared hard at the stern of the Bombardier.
"… in the lap …" She reached for her binoculars. " … of the gods." She
gazed through them for several seconds.

"What is it boss?"

"Whooooooooooooohooooooooooooooooooooo
… the gods are smiling, Paulie!!" she yelled, standing up and clapping
her hands together. "They blew out their spinnaker!!!"

Paul grabbed the binoculars
from around Jo's neck, almost lynching her in the process.

"Get the fuck outta here,"
he exclaimed, climbing up onto the rail. Jo jumped down and picked up Jason's
gloves, which sat on the rim of the cockpit. She tossed them at the American.

"We're back in the hunt, folks.
Let's kick it up a notch, eh?"

Whoops and hollers greeted
the news, and people scattered in all directions. Cadie manned her winch,
releasing the slack in the sheet and taking the tension on the grinder,
waiting for the order to wind. She glanced back and watched Jo at the helm.
The tall woman was wound almost as tight as the rigging, and Cadie grinned
at the obvious glint in the steely blue eyes.

A pirate queen, she thought.
My
pirate queen.

Jo grabbed the trophy with
both hands, tipping the deep silver cup up and drinking long and deep from
the contents. The champagne threatened to spill over and she let it, not
caring how much she wasted down the front of her shirt. There was plenty
more where that came from. Tucked into her back pocket was $1180 cash -
her share of the $13000 the Seawolf had won over the past five days.

The best part was hoisting
the trophy over the heads of the assembled crowd with Paul holding the
other side of it. She grinned, took another swig of the ice-cold champagne
and passed the trophy on to Jenny, who happily buried her head in the silverware.

And the worst part … Jo looked
around the deck of the Seawolf, which was packed to the gunwhales with
the crews from the other boats in their class.

The worst part is Cadie
isn't here to share in it, she thought, sobering. Typically, Naomi
had pocketed her share of the winnings and, along with Kelli and Larissa,
had disappeared into the night, dragging Cadie behind her. She looked
like she was about to burst into tears, Jo remembered. Damn, I wish
she was here. She worked just as hard for this as the rest of us.

She gazed around at the marina,
which was fully booked for the biggest night of the regatta. Over 200 yachts
and motor launches snuggled up to each other. There were several other
parties on different boats across the marina, as the winners of each class
hosted their own victory celebrations. Lights twinkled against the dark
backdrop of the island rising behind them in one direction, and the open
waters of Whitsunday Passage in the other.

Jo sighed.

There's a couple of sea-green
stars I'd like to see twinkling right about now, she thought wistfully.
But she didn't have long to get introspective as a loud war-whoop announced
the arrival of Paul by her side.

"We did it, skip!!" he yelled,
picking her up bodily and spinning her around. "We kicked their bums!"

"That's bullshit, Jo-Jo," he
protested, waving his stubby of beer wildly. "We could've given it away
when we blew the mainsail. But we didn't. You put us in the right place
at the right time so we could have a go when we got a chance." He kissed
her soundly. "And now Jen and I have enough for a honeymoon as well as
a big party."

She grinned at him cheesily.

"My pleasure, big fella," she
said, patting him on the belly.

Someone below decks cranked
the music up and soon the boat was rocking as 70-odd happy sailors settled
in for a big night of partying. The skipper of the Bombardier - a bearded
man with a pot belly - sauntered up to Jo and bowed deeply.

"Congrats, Jo-Jo," he said
graciously. "You got us a good one. Jen's just told me half your crew was
a bunch of rookie Seppo tourists. You must've been training the buggers
for weeks."

Jo beamed from ear to ear,
proud of the makeshift crew.

"Actually, Jacko, we only decided
on Saturday to give it a go." She laughed as his jaw dropped.

"Well, bugger me," he said.
"All power to you, skipper, you deserve it." He shook her hand and pumped
it vigorously. "We'll get you next year though," he added, wagging a finger
at her as he headed back into the crowd.

Don't count on it, Jacko,
she thought happily.

It was almost midnight as Cadie
wandered back down the hill towards the marina. Parties were still in full
swing all over the harbour, and she grinned at the thought of finally joining
the Seawolf crew in its celebration.

She and Naomi had become separated
in the crush of the dance party on the other side of the resort and she'd
opted to make her way back to the boat, rather than try and find the increasingly
intoxicated senator.

That's my story and I'm
sticking to it, she thought with a smile as she caught sight of the
Seawolf. Is that …? She laughed out loud as she recognised the figure
halfway up the mast as Paul, hanging happily in a harness, singing his
head off. Looks like it's already been quite the night. Her eyes
swept around the deck. No sign of Jo though.

She walked up the gangplank
and waved at Jason and Toby who yelled their greetings as they chacha-ed
past.

I've gotta get out of these
heels, thought Cadie, as she stepped into the cockpit and down the
companionway. She emerged into the cabin to find Jo sitting with her back
to her, head propped on the back of the sofa. Nobody else seemed to be
around, so Cadie tiptoed forward and slid her arm over Jo's right shoulder,
pulling the skipper close as she ducked down to whisper in her left ear.

"Hello, sailor," she burred,
kissing the rim of Jo's ear softly.

"Mmmmmmmmmm, hello gorgeous,"
Jo responded, tipping her head back even further to look up into green
eyes. "You managed to sneak away, huh?"

"Mhmmm, something like that."
Cadie smiled down at the dark-haired woman, letting her fingers tangle
in the long locks. Oh, I can't resist. She bent again and took Jo's
mouth passionately, her tongue probing, bolts of desire rushing through
her as Jo responded in kind. Strong hands reached up and cupped her head,
pulling her closer.

Jo groaned into the contact, aroused
beyond belief by the blonde's initiative. Damn this sofa, she thought
blearily, wishing she could just pull Cadie over the back of the chair
and into her arms.

Cadie could taste champagne
on the skipper's tongue and she smiled as she gently pulled away. They
rubbed noses and she kissed Jo lightly.

"You all done partying?" she
asked.

Jo leaned forward and picked
up a cup of coffee.

"No fear," she answered. "Just
getting my second wind." She leaned back and watched Cadie ease her high
heels off her feet with a happy groan. "How about you?"

"Well, I'm done wearing these
torture devices," she said. "I'm going to change into something more comfortable."
She laughed at Jo's raised eyebrow. "Not that comfortable, darling," she
said, patting the skipper's shoulder. "I want to get some fun in before
Naomi figures out where I am."

Jo nodded.

"Okay. I'll see you back on
deck." Jo drained her cup and stood up. "Unless … ummmmm …" She grinned
wickedly. "Unless you need some help in there." Casually she wandered over
to where Cadie was laughing, one hand on the cabin door.

"Oh, Jo-Jo, my love. Don't
tempt me." Cadie stood on her tiptoes and kissed Jo softly again. "But
the way my luck is running, Naomi would swim by and crawl up through the
head just to see what I was up to." She smiled regretfully as Jo nodded
her agreement.

"Come up and celebrate with
us, Arcadia," the tall woman said softly. "We missed you." She paused and
cupped the blonde's cheek again with a gentle palm. "I missed you."

Cadie pulled on her jeans.
As she had been doing for close to a week, her mind turned over the problem
of what to do about Naomi's threats and demands. And as had happened every
time, she ran into a brick wall. She smoothed down her shirt distractedly
and looked around the cabin.

The drugs are the key, she
realized. She's threatening to plant drugs on the boat and blackmail
Jo with them. So … She spun in a slow circle. She wouldn't keep
the drugs on her because … well, just because that's too big a pain in
the ass for Naomi. And she's barely set foot in other parts of the boat.
I doubt she even knows where the crew goes at night. That leaves the main
cabin, where anyone could stumble over it, or … in here.

She glanced down at her watch.

Just after 1am. My guess
is she's going to be at least a couple more hours. Plenty of time to search
this room from top to bottom.

The cell phone rang with obscene
volume so close to Jo's ear that it brought her upright with explosive
speed. She cracked her head on the ceiling of the cramped crew quarters,
driving her back down onto the bunk, hands pressed to her temples.

"Owwwwwww. Fuck."

She scrambled to silence the
offending gadget, sleepy hands fumbling as muffled curses floated up from
below where Paul and Jenny were curled up in a sodden ball together.

"Hello?" Jo mumbled into the
speaker, hoping she'd pressed the right button. She had.

"Is that Jo Madison?" came
an unfamiliar male voice.

"It's her pitiful outer shell
speaking," Jo replied, wondering just how a hangover could possibly feel
any worse.

"I'll take that as a yes, then.
Look, it's Constable McDonald here, from the Hamilton Island police." Jo's
hangover got worse instantly. "We've got three of your passengers here.
One of them claims to be a US senator."

Jo groaned, rubbing her eyes
with the back of her hand.

"Are they lost or something?"
she asked, wishing fervently the man would just go away. "Want me to come
and collect them?"